Lacey wore a gray tweed dress with a modern, folded neckline and a pair of patterned black stilettos. Every strand of blond hair was in place, and her makeup was as perfect as that of any airbrushed cover model.
“It should worry you,” Lacey was saying.
“Meaning?” Ethan asked.
“Sentinel or otherwise, she’s common, Ethan. A common soldier. And I have to say, I really don’t get all the fuss.”
My lips parted. Did she just call me common?
“I’m not sure that ‘common’ is a word I’d equate with Merit, Lacey. I don’t deny she’s a soldier, but I don’t think ‘common’ gives her due credit.”
“Still—brawn doesn’t make a Master.”
“Well, either she’ll Test one day, or she won’t.”
Lacey chuckled. “You mean, either you’ll nominate her or you won’t.”
Lacey was the only other Master vampire Ethan had nominated in his nearly four hundred years as vampire. He hadn’t even taken Testing. Masters like Ethan and Morgan, who’d risen to the ranks when their own Masters were killed, were allowed to skip the exam.
She sounded irritatingly confident that Ethan wouldn’t nominate me.
“Admittedly, she’s young,” Ethan said. “She has a lot of learning to do before she’s ready—a lot of immortality to get through before she’s ready. And only time will bear it out. But I believe she’ll prove capable.”
He chose that moment to glance up—and meet my eyes through the crack in the door. I made a split-second decision and pushed the door open as if I’d been on my way out.
Ethan lifted his eyebrows in surprise. “Mer—Sentinel?”
Lacey stepped behind him.
I played innocent. “Oh, hello. I was just on my way out.”
They both looked over my sweaty workout ensemble, and I felt like the heroine in a John Hughes movie, all awkwardness and deer-in-the-headlights eyes.
“Out?” he repeated.
Think! I silently demanded, and when genius struck, I nodded, reached behind me, and pulled up my right foot, imitating a stretch. “I just got in a run, so I was heading to the stairs to do some stretches.”
Ethan’s brow furrowed, worry suddenly in his eyes. Did he care if I’d heard? Would it bother him if she had hurt me?
“Are you going to introduce us?” Lacey asked.
For a split second, just enough for him to glimpse but not so long that she caught it, I tilted my head at him, letting him see the snarky question in my eyes: Yes, Ethan. Are you going to introduce us?
“Lacey Sheridan,” she said, not letting Ethan make the choice. She didn’t extend a hand, but just stood there smugly, as if the mere mention of her name was supposed to knock me back a couple of pegs.
“Merit. Sentinel,” I added, in case she needed the reminder that I was the one in Ethan’s House now. I bit back a smile at the twitch in her jaw.
“I was a guard, as well,” she said, her gaze scanning my body as she sized me up, an opponent preparing to do battle. Were we battling for Ethan? For some kind of in-House superiority? Whatever the reason, I wasn’t going to play the game. I’d already gone all-in, and I’d lost my entire stack of chips in the bargain.
“That’s what I’ve heard,” I politely said. “I’m friends with Lindsey. You two were guards together, I understand, before you took Testing.”
“Yes, I know Lindsey. She’s a solid guard. Particularly good at ferreting out motivations.” She offered Lindsey’s evaluation as if, rather than discussing a friend or colleague, she’d been asked for a professional reference.
I shifted my gaze back to Ethan. “I assume you heard about Alabama?”
His expression clouded. “I did. Gabriel’s rumblings?”
I nodded. “That was my guess.”
He blew out a breath, then nodded. “It is what it is. I’d like to leave for the church within the hour.”
“Liege,” I said again, obedience in my voice.
He didn’t growl, exactly, but the acquiescence clearly irritated him. I smiled as I walked away.
I was showered and dressed—jeans, boots, and a tank top beneath my leather jacket—and on my way downstairs to Ethan’s office when my phone rang. I pulled it from my pocket and checked the screen. It was Mallory.
“Yo,” I answered.
“I know you’re heading out, but I’m about to pull up in front of Cadogan House. Catcher wants to talk to Ethan, and I have something for you.”
“Something tasty?”
“Do you only love me for my choice cooking?”
“Well, no, but I’ll admit it’s one of the reasons.”
“As long as the reasons are many and varied. Get your butt down here.”
Knowing when to take an order, I closed and repocketed the phone, then completed my trip to the front door. The foyer was Master vampire free, so I headed outside with a pleasant lack of drama.
Mal stood at the front gate in stovepipe jeans and a long tank, hands at her hips. She looked to be interrogating the guard. I hopped down the steps, then took the sidewalk to the gate. Catcher stepped beside her just as I approached, probably having just parked the car, a mix of amusement and defeat in his expression.
“And I’d heard you folks were really great at the Third Key,” she was saying. “Do you have any advice for me?”
The mercenary fairy at the gate stared down at her with maliciousness in his eyes. “ ‘You folks’?”
Mallory grinned. “Sorry, it’s just, your traditions are so interesting. So natural. So woodsy. Would you be willing to sit down with me and maybe you could share—”
“Okay,” Catcher interrupted, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her toward the House. “That’s enough of that. My apologies,” he offered to the guard, then guided Mallory up the sidewalk.
“Making new friends?” I asked her.
“They’re a really fascinating people.”
“I bet they like being called by their names.”